On this day: April 24

2013: Rana Plaza, a nine-story building near Dhaka, Bangladesh, collapses, killing 1,138 people and injuring 2,500 others. Around 3,500 workers were inside the building, which had apparel factories, a bank and several other shops, when the building collapse. It is considered to be the deadliest garment-factory accident in history, as well as the deadliest accidental structural failure in modern human history. The collapse occurred a day after cracks appeared in the structure. It led the bank to order its employees not to report for work, and the shops were closed because of a strike. But garment workers were told to come in despite their concerns that the building's structure was not sound. The owner of the building, Sohel Rana, was arrested four days after the collapse and is still awaiting trial.

2005: Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is inaugurated as the 265th pope of the Roman Catholic Church, taking the name Pope Benedict XVI. He resigned due to health issues on Feb. 28, 2013, becoming the first pope to resign since Pope Gregory XII in 1415, and is now pope emeritus of the Catholic Church.

2005: Snuppy, the world's first cloned dog, is born in South Korea. The Afghan hound puppy was created using the cell of an ear from an adult Afghan hound and involved 123 surrogate mothers, of which only three produced pups, with Snuppy being the lone survivor. He was later named as Time Magazine's "Most Amazing Invention" of the year for 2005.

2004: Estée Lauder, the entrepreneur and co-founder of Estée Lauder Companies, dies of cardiopulmonary arrest at the age of 97 in New York City. Lauder, who was born Josephine Esther Mentzer, founded the cosmetics company with her husband, Joseph Lauder, in 1935. She's seen here, at left, with a customer in 1966.

1996: The creation of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) is announced at a press conference with Rebecca Lobo, Lisa Leslie and Sheryl Swoopes in attendance. The National Basketball Association founded the league as a woman's counterpart to the NBA. It would begin play on June 21, 1997, with eight teams: the Charlotte Sting, Cleveland Rockers, Houston Comets and New York Liberty in the Eastern Conference; and the Los Angeles Sparks, Phoenix Mercury, Sacramento Monarchs and Utah Starzz in the Western Conference.

1995: A package bomb later linked to Unabomber Ted Kaczynski blows up in Sacramento, Calif., killing timber industry lobbyist Gilbert B. Murray. He would be the third and last person killed by Kaczynski's bombs. The same day Kaczynski also sent a letter to The New York Times promising to end his bombing campaign if the Times or the Washington Post published his manifesto. Kaczynski, who also injured 23 other people in a bombing campaign stretching back to 1978, would be arrested on April 3, 1996, at his remote cabin outside Lincoln, Mont.

1990: Space shuttle Discovery lifts off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on its mission to deploy the Hubble Space Telescope.

1982: Pop singer-songwriter Kelly Clarkson, who became famous after winning the first season of "American Idol" in 2002, is born in Fort Worth, Texas. Her hits include "A Moment Like This," "Breakaway," "Since U Been Gone," "Because of You," "My Life Would Suck Without You" and "Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)."

1980: Eight U.S. servicemen die in Operation Eagle Claw, an aborted attempt to end the Iran hostage crisis. After only five of eight helicopters made it to the first staging area in the desert of Iran, President Jimmy Carter granted the commanders' request to abort the mission. As troops prepared to leave, one of the helicopters crashed into a transport aircraft containing both servicemen and jet fuel, resulting in a deadly explosion and fire.

1974: Actor and comedian Bud Abbott (left), one-half of the famous comedy duo Abbott and Costello with Lou Costello, dies of cancer at the age of 78 in Woodland Hills, Calif.

1972: The California Supreme Court in the case of People v. Anderson invalidates the state's death penalty and commutes the sentences of all death row inmates to life imprisonment. The death penalty was later reinstated by a state constitutional amendment, called Proposition 17. Because of the ruling, Charles Manson avoided execution for the Tate-LaBianca murders in 1969 and Robert Kennedy's assassin Sirhan Sirhan also had his death sentence commuted to life in prison. The ruling also meant that any person ever charged with a murder committed in California before 1972 could not be executed.

1971: The Soviet spacecraft Soyuz 10 attempts to dock with Salyut 1, the first space station. However, the attempt was unsuccessful and the crew returned to Earth without having entered the station. The crew of Soyuz 11 would later successfully dock with the space station and stay on board for 23 days before leaving.

1970: The first Chinese satellite, Dong Fang Hong I, is launched. The satellite carried a radio transmitter and broadcast the song of the same name, "D?ngf?nghóng" or "The East Is Red," which lasted for 26 days while in orbit. Pictured is a model of the satellite on display in China.

1967: Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov, 40, dies in Soyuz 1 when its parachute fails to open on the spacecraft's return to Earth. He is the first human to die during a space mission.

1964: Actor Djimon Hounsou, who has earned Oscar nominations for his roles in "In America" and "Blood Diamond," is born in Cotonou, Benin. Hounsou is also known for roles in movies such as "Amistad," "Gladiator" and "Push."

1964: Comedian and actor Cedric the Entertainer, best known for the sitcoms "The Steve Harvey Show" and "The Soul Man" and for the films "Barbershop" and "The Original Kings of Comedy," is born Cedric Antonio Kyles in Jefferson City, Mo.

1942: Singer, actress and filmmaker Barbra Streisand is born Barbara Joan Streisand in Brooklyn, N.Y. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, five Emmy Award and a Special Tony Award, making her one of the few entertainers who has won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Award. She is the best-selling female artist on the Recording Industry Association of America's Top Selling Album Artists list and has starred in movies such as "Funny Girl," "Hello, Dolly!," "The Way We Were" and "A Star Is Born." She also directed and produced the movies "Yentl," "The Prince of Tides" and "The Mirror Has Two Faces."

1940: Author Sue Grafton, best known as the author of the "alphabet series" ("'A' Is for Alibi," etc.) detective novels featuring private investigator Kinsey Millhone, is born in in Louisville, Ky.

1934: Actress Shirley MacLaine, best known for movies such as "The Apartment," "Irma la Douce," "Being There," "Terms of Endearment" and "Steel Magnolias," is born Shirley MacLean Beatty in Richmond, Va. MacLaine was nominated for an Academy Award five times before winning the Oscar for Best Actress in 1983 for her role in "Terms of Endearment."

1930: Filmmaker Richard Donner, best known for directing movies such as "The Omen," "Superman," "Superman II," "The Goonies," the "Lethal Weapon" movies and "Scrooged," is born Richard Donald Schwartzberg in New York City.

1916: Ernest Shackleton and five men of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition launch a lifeboat from uninhabited Elephant Island in the Southern Ocean to organize a rescue for the rest of the crew of the ship Endurance, which had become stuck in the ice and sunk before reaching Antarctica.

1913: The Woolworth Building skyscraper in New York City is opened. The 57-story building overtook the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower as the world's tallest building.

1907: Hershey Park, founded by Milton S. Hershey, the founder of the Hershey Chocolate Company, for the exclusive use of his employees, is opened.

1800: The United States Library of Congress is established when President John Adams signs legislation to appropriate $5,000 to purchase "such books as may be necessary for the use of Congress."

1731: English author Daniel Defoe, most famous for his novel "Robinson Crusoe," dies between the ages of 70 and 72 in London, England. Born Daniel Foe, he was one of the earliest proponents of the novel and is among the founders of the English novel.

1704: The first regular newspaper in the United States, the News-Letter, is published in Boston, Mass. The newspaper was heavily subsidized by the British government and had a limited circulation.

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